1. Field
One or more embodiments relate to a display apparatus and method, and more particularly to a display apparatus and method simultaneously sense incident light to generate an image and displaying an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
A display apparatus may include a display panel, a camera, and a backlight unit. The display apparatus may operate in a capturing mode for acquiring image data, or in a displaying mode for displaying the image data.
Two examples of such display apparatus have been discussed in an article by Hirsch et al., “A Thin, Depth-Sensing LCD for 3D Interaction using Light Fields,” in Proceedings of SIGGRAPH ASIA December 2009, a similar display apparatus was set forth. In a first example, the display apparatus sequentially includes an angle limiter layer, a display panel/a coded mask layer, and a diffusing layer. The display panel is controlled to generate a coded mask effect of the coded mask layer, and a camera would be positioned behind the diffusing layer. The captured image data would thus be obtained from the surface of the diffusing layer. In this approach, it was necessary to position the camera a meter behind the diffusing layer to compensate for a lack of an angle-limiting film, which the authors of the article indicated was necessary, rather than suffering the downside affects of using an angle-limiting film in front of the display.
In an alternative approach, the display device sequentially includes the display panel, a mask, a single large-format sensor, and a backlight. The single large-format sensor detects light that is incident on the sensor after passing through the display panel. The authors indicated that it was necessary to have the single large-format sensor be made up of a plane of clear photo-detectors in a clear substrate or membrane, as it was necessary that the most light from the backlight be provided to the display panel. In these two approaches, the external camera and the single large-format sensor both resulted in a low resolution capturing capabilities, which was not as much of a concern to the authors because they were more focused on obtaining sufficient orthographic images for gesture detection, which they acknowledged did not require higher quality images.
The Hirsch et al. article additionally notes that the utilization of a dense camera array behind the display panel may not be practical and may be difficult to develop, as the approach would increase the engineering complexity compared to the use of the single large-frame sensor. As further noted by Hirsch et al., such a different sensor approach would introduce backlight non-uniformity issues due to sensor element blocking light generated by the backlight. Rather, the authors of Hirsch et al. pointed out the benefits of the transparent photodiode single large-format sensor, with a clear substrate or membrane, was specifically used so light from the backlight would not be blocked. The authors of Hirsch et al. have also noted that alternative technologies may not be available in the near future. The authors further note that their approach requires an extended image data capturing period when a modified uniformly redundant array (MURA) coding pattern is used, with the entire display panel being set to produce the MURA coding pattern for a few milliseconds, producing noticeable flickering. The extended period of time required for the MURA coding patter is required so the single large-frame sensor can uniformly capture image data that has been modulated by the tiled-MURA code.
Accordingly, a display apparatus including a camera or such a single large-frame sensor may have several limitations in acquiring an image, including not being able to accurately sense incident light while also operating the display panel to display images based on light radiating from the backlight.